District hires new communications specialist

by Dennis Dalman

editor@thenewsleaders.com

Sarah Kleppe is eager to get to know school officials, teachers, staff, students and parents.

She said she believes a thorough, one-on-one knowledge of people in the Sartell-St. Stephen School District will help make her a better communications specialist. She was hired for that position at the July 17 school-board meeting. The previous communications specialist, Amy Trombley, resigned some months ago to take another job in the school district.

“I love this job so far,” Kleppe told the Sartell-St. Stephen Newsleader. “There are so many great people here. I’ll be working for a great district.”

Education has encircled Kleppe’s life since she was a girl. Both of her parents were teachers – her mother a fourth-grade teacher in Deephaven, her father a math teacher for junior and senior high schools in Wayzata.

Kleppe, the youngest of three siblings, was born in Minnetonka. Her family moved to Wayzata when she was in kindergarten, and she attended Wayzata schools in kindergarten through her high-school graduation.

At Gustavus Adolphus College, she earned a degree in communications studies, then went on to earn a master’s degree in library-and-information science from the College of St. Catherine/Dominican University.

“I love communications,” she said. “My goal is to share all the great things going on in the district. I intend to use all communications tools in learning all about the district.”

Kleppe is a strong advocate of immersing oneself in another culture to expand one’s horizons. She did just that when she lived in Sweden for one year as a nanny to a baron (a doctor) and baroness in a very old manor house in a little farm town named Kumla. She taught the family’s two children English, and she, in turn, learned Swedish from the family and others. Kleppe’s mother’s mother emigrated from Sweden to the United States so she felt a kinship with the land of her grandmother’s birth. That’s only one reason Kleppe is so keen on history, traveling and other countries. Her grandfather (mother’s father) was an immigrant from Germany, and her other grandfather immigrated from Norway.

Kleppe is a professionally certified downhill skier. She is a also a member of Lakselaget, an organization in the Twin Cities that provides scholarships for women to promote connections between Norway and Minnesota.

“I’m very excited to be here in the school district,” Kleppe said. “There are so many good ways to connect with teachers, parents and students, such as the student newspaper, the Sabre Spotlight.”